A three-year-old boy has finally been allowed to go home after spending almost his entire life in hospital battling cancer, a liver transplant and a virus.

The problems started when Andy Calderon was just two months old, and problems with his bile ducts revealed that his liver was not working.

Doctors in Argentina then reportedly diagnosed him with lymphoproliferative cancer, after he contracted the Epstein-Barr virus.

Little Andy received a new liver from Zair Aguirre, a deceased six-year-old boy. The operation took place on 28th January 2020, and he was discharged in July.

But after a checkup in November, doctors found that he had pneumonia in his right lung.

His dad, 42-year-old Ismael, said: “Pneumonia in a baby who has had a transplant? Everything was already bad, but the worst was yet to come.”

During his stay in hospital, Andy contracted the Epstein-Barr virus, also known as the ‘kissing disease’. It is known to trigger the development of cancer in some cases.

Experts concluded that the virus had triggered the development of cancer in his lymphatic system.

Ismael remembers that period clearly. He said: “They didn’t give him any chance [of survival]. I had brought clothes for a week. Maradona had just died, I remember. And we couldn’t go back to Rio Gallegos anymore.”

The family, from Rio Gallegos, the capital of the southern Argentine province of Santa Cruz, had no other choice but to remain in the country’s capital, Buenos Aires.

Andy remained in hospital and was treated for his cancer. And in November 2021, the doctors gave his family the good news – the cancer had gone.

In December, Andy underwent surgery on his liver for a catheter to be removed, before spending the first three months of 2022 recovering.

And now Andy is said to be 100 per cent healthy and can finally go home and enjoy his childhood. His dad said: “It’s all new to us. We spent three years in Buenos Aires locked up in a hospital, but it doesn’t matter anymore. Andy is fully recovered.”

Ismael said that his son “had to fight two huge monsters and beat them”.

He was told that his son would not survive, but the relieved father now says: “I have him here playing.”

The grateful dad added that organ donation can save lives. He said: “Donating saves lives, and although it seems obvious, I did not know it until it happened to me. I was given the possibility of having my son alive.”